FEAR!

So, this week a theme continued to recur. Fear.

A friend online acknowledged the fact that she might be sabotaging herself at work so she’d never have to take that next step in her career. Fear of failure or fear of success? Hmm. Guess each of us might view it differently.

The list of fears is long…heights, people, enclosures, colors, smells, intimacy, relationships, numbers, water, dogs, cats, snakes, etc. Oh, and my favorite: Fear of Phobias (phobophobia). LOL And that got me to assessing myself. What are my fears? The list is pretty typical. Fear of failure, tight spaces, heights, and spiders…yes, let’s not forget spiders. Then I found myself discussing it my good friend, Lisa, and realized it might be a good topic for this month’s blog…

That Voice!
So, what am I doing about fears? Well, I’m trying to overcome them. Gotta admit, tough job. The fear of failure starts with everything I do. Overachiever? Maybe. But whenever I hear that nagging voice in my ear, “You can’t do this. You’ll never make it. You really suck at this. Etc, etc.” I take that extra step to prove it wrong.

Sadly, sometimes I do fail, and that little voice gloats, and I feel like a complete idiot. But when I’m successful? Yeah, I’m like, “In your face!” LOL

It feels awesome to succeed!

Claustrophobia…
To test myself on tight spaces, I went and had an MRI…okay, it’s not like I called the hospital and said, “Hey, I’m claustrophobic and I want to get an MRI.” The doctor said I needed one for my knee.

So, when I get to the hospital, they tell me to take off anything metal before I lay on the table…rings, keys in my pants pocket, earrings, etc. and then they ask about tooth fillings.

Um, why is that?

Cause the freaking machine is magnetic and can rip them out of your head.

Oh, okay. Good to know. But no, my teeth are fine.

Then they strap me down to a table and immobilize my knee. In short, that’s just the fancy word they use for clamping my leg into one of those bear traps so I’d have to gnaw my leg off to get free. Yeah, I got a little nervous at that point.

Then the really fun part starts. They slide me into this big cylindrical tube. At first I thought it wasn’t so bad, but then the banging started. Was the machine broken? Because it sounded like someone was beating on it with a pipe wrench.

About halfway through, I started to panic. I knew the signs…sweaty palms, dry mouth, racing heart, hyperventilation… But I forced myself to remain calm, talked myself through it, and I succeeded.

Oh yeah, my knee pain turned out to be a tiny tear in my meniscus…no big deal. But still, “In your face, claustrophobia!”

The Point
The point is, we all have fears. It’s what triggers our fight or flight instinct for survival. And those of us who write use that to create these wonderful, realistic chinks in our hero’s and heroine’s armor. If the heroine is afraid of heights, then you can bet the antagonist is going to get her on a ledge. If the hero is terrified of flying, then he’ll end up on an airplane in the middle of a storm with the pilot incapacitated—not only is he flying, but now he’ll have to land the plane in a storm with eighty screaming passengers and there’s a cat who just gave birth to a litter of kittens in the middle of the runway…and the hero is a huge animal rights activist. LOL

In your face, aviophobia!

Facing your fears makes you a stronger person. What are your fears? And what are you doing to overcome them so you can say, “In your face!”?